In this casket were the letters her lover had written to her from the camp. They were all short, hurried notes, many of them very dirty from the numerous hands they had passed through before they reached her. She knew them all by heart, those love greetings that said so little and yet so much, that she had waited for with such longing, that she had received with such exulting joy, that she had read and read again with such happiness. Mechanically she took one of the letters, and allowed her eyes slowly to follow the lines. Then she threw away the paper with a movement of horror. "And with the same hand," she cried, "with which he wrote these words--" She did not finish the sentence, but gazed gloomily before her. "But is it true?" she cried, suddenly; "can it not be malice, envy? Oh, I knew that this woman was once no stranger to him. I have not seen the writings side by side to compare them. Good heavens!" she cried, with horror, "that wretched letter lies in the drawing-room; if one of the servants----" And hastily springing up, she hurried from the room, glided swiftly through the intervening apartments, reached the drawing-room, and advanced at once to the table where the fatal letter lay between two vases of flowers upon some tapestry work. The sound of her footsteps aroused the young officer from his reverie. He rose hastily from his half-recumbent position, in which he had been completely concealed by the high back of the chair, and he saw her his dreams had pictured standing really before him, her face expressing indescribable agitation. It would be impossible to find words to tell the feelings that passed through the young girl's mind in one moment. Her heart beat high with joyful surprise when she saw her lover so unexpectedly; but the next instant bitter sorrow rushed upon her as she remembered she was for ever separated from the happiness that had been hers. Her thoughts grew indistinct, she had neither the strength to speak nor to withdraw, she stood motionless, her large dilated eyes fixed upon him whom she so unexpectedly beheld. With one bound the young man was beside her, he opened his arms as if about to embrace her, but quickly recollecting himself, he sank down on one knee, seized her hand, which she yielded involuntarily, and impressed upon it a long, warm, and affectionate kiss. "Here, sweet joy of my heart, star of my love," he cried, "here is your true knight again; your talisman has been my protection; the holy light of my star was stronger than all the threatening clouds that surrounded me." And with bright eyes, filled with happiness, love, and adoring admiration, he looked up at her. She gazed at him, but there was no expression in her widely opened eyes, it seemed as if all her blood had flowed back to her heart, as if all her ideas, all her powers of will, were banished by the overwhelming feelings of the last few moments.